Development and use of Moodle for online student support

Abstract

In the current educational climate in the world today, there is an increasing use of technology and social media for learning, by both students and language teachers. With this in mind, and to meet the perceived associated need for students to have increasing abilities and skills to study autonomously and independently, a new e-learning platform (Moodle) was introduced to Unitec, a tertiary institution in Auckland, New Zealand. This paper describes how the Moodle site has been developed since inception and how it is used within the Department of Language Studies to facilitate both English as an Additional Language (EAL) for online support and for the development of autonomy.